The product which you are referring to (A313) makes a green on brass. The shorter the dip, the lighter the finish. It's as simple as that. What you are basically doing is "oxidizing" the surface chemically and tricking it into thinking that it's been aged. The heavy metals in the solution react with your base metal and force it to chage colour. (hence why you see the statue of liberty in a green when it is copper. The natural salt water from the surrounding air oxidizes the copper and the remaining product is then chemically changed from a copper to green. Take a close look....the older finish is REALLY green, to whereas the newer stuff they just did is a lighter shade. Good...now you have a grip on the process).
Anyways.... Caswell offers different chemical solutions to produce different patina's on your brass. For example :
PRODA02 makes your brass black. The longer you leave it in the solution, the blacker it gets. 1-5 seconds makes a very light haze, 30 minutes is a deep jet black
PRODA312 makes a rich chocolate brown
PRODA313 makes a very deep velvety black brown
ProdA316 (the one that started this thread) makes a nice Verdi green.
The same time in the solution holds true for all of the above. Longer it sits, darker it gets.
I hope that straightens out your dilemma and points you to what product you wish to purchase. There's different treatments for different metals, of course. But hey, you asked about brass, not aluminum or steel. Take care all.....Russ
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